Ben Jones
@benrjones.bsky.social
CEO of dataliteracy.com, author of nine books on data and AI including Avoiding Data Pitfalls and AI Literacy Fundamentals
Reposted by Ben Jones
🧵 I’ve talked a lot about disordered discourse, conspiracies, polarisation, denialism. But maybe the better question is: why does this keep happening? Why does our shared reality keep fracturing? What are the drivers I talk about as a dimension of disordered discourse?
I've just come back from the Cambridge Disinformation Summit where I gave the opening keynote, titled "Demanufacturing Consent - How Disordered Discourse is Destroying Democracy", featuring everything from Fake Hooves to Jackson Hinkle being the worst.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-FV...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-FV...
Belllingcat CEO Eliot Higgins, on how disordered discourse is destroying democracy
YouTube video by Cambridge Disinformation Summit
www.youtube.com
May 16, 2025 at 9:01 AM
🧵 I’ve talked a lot about disordered discourse, conspiracies, polarisation, denialism. But maybe the better question is: why does this keep happening? Why does our shared reality keep fracturing? What are the drivers I talk about as a dimension of disordered discourse?
The Trojans would've been stupid to reject the gift of the large wooden horse from Odysseus and the Greeks.
May 13, 2025 at 3:58 PM
The Trojans would've been stupid to reject the gift of the large wooden horse from Odysseus and the Greeks.
Concerning… www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
With ‘AI slop’ distorting our reality, the world is sleepwalking into disaster | Nesrine Malik
A perverse information ecosystem is being mined by big tech for profit, fooling the unwary and sending algorithms crazy, says Guardian columnist Nesrine Malik
www.theguardian.com
April 23, 2025 at 12:17 PM
Concerning… www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Wow… from “A Gentleman in Moscow” by @amortowles.bsky.social, written in 2016.
April 14, 2025 at 12:00 AM
Wow… from “A Gentleman in Moscow” by @amortowles.bsky.social, written in 2016.
A century of U.S. face palm:
The Greatest Generation
↳ The Me Generation
↳ The Entitled Generation
↳ The Anxious Generarion
The Greatest Generation
↳ The Me Generation
↳ The Entitled Generation
↳ The Anxious Generarion
April 7, 2025 at 1:48 PM
A century of U.S. face palm:
The Greatest Generation
↳ The Me Generation
↳ The Entitled Generation
↳ The Anxious Generarion
The Greatest Generation
↳ The Me Generation
↳ The Entitled Generation
↳ The Anxious Generarion
Intelligence, rigor, wisdom, compassion: neglect these at your peril.
April 7, 2025 at 10:17 AM
Intelligence, rigor, wisdom, compassion: neglect these at your peril.
I didn’t know April
Fool’s Day was lasting the entire month this year.
Fool’s Day was lasting the entire month this year.
April 7, 2025 at 10:13 AM
I didn’t know April
Fool’s Day was lasting the entire month this year.
Fool’s Day was lasting the entire month this year.
Reposted by Ben Jones
So. I wrote a dissertation on how economic crises can lead to the breakdown of authoritarian regimes.
Here are three key point to keep in mind as you watch the news this week 🧵
Here are three key point to keep in mind as you watch the news this week 🧵
Economic Crises and the Breakdown of Authoritarian Regimes
Cambridge Core - Asian Studies - Economic Crises and the Breakdown of Authoritarian Regimes
www.cambridge.org
April 7, 2025 at 12:38 AM
So. I wrote a dissertation on how economic crises can lead to the breakdown of authoritarian regimes.
Here are three key point to keep in mind as you watch the news this week 🧵
Here are three key point to keep in mind as you watch the news this week 🧵
Never accept the following in another: the inability to admit error, or, upon admitting it, the unwillingness to make it right. If this is an apt description of a person in your orbit, run.
April 5, 2025 at 3:00 AM
Never accept the following in another: the inability to admit error, or, upon admitting it, the unwillingness to make it right. If this is an apt description of a person in your orbit, run.
Reposted by Ben Jones
NEW 🧵
A quick thread of charts showing how Trump’s economic agenda is going so far:
1) US consumers are reacting very very negatively.
These are the worst ratings for any US government’s economic policy since records began.
A quick thread of charts showing how Trump’s economic agenda is going so far:
1) US consumers are reacting very very negatively.
These are the worst ratings for any US government’s economic policy since records began.
April 4, 2025 at 12:51 PM
NEW 🧵
A quick thread of charts showing how Trump’s economic agenda is going so far:
1) US consumers are reacting very very negatively.
These are the worst ratings for any US government’s economic policy since records began.
A quick thread of charts showing how Trump’s economic agenda is going so far:
1) US consumers are reacting very very negatively.
These are the worst ratings for any US government’s economic policy since records began.
I think the word legit is overused.
March 26, 2025 at 8:13 PM
I think the word legit is overused.
Failures in AI translation:
My wife Becky just used Google Translate to ask our landscaper in Spanish to dump a bucket of weeds she had pulled, and he showed up at our front door wondering why she’s texting him about marijuana. 😂😂😂
My wife Becky just used Google Translate to ask our landscaper in Spanish to dump a bucket of weeds she had pulled, and he showed up at our front door wondering why she’s texting him about marijuana. 😂😂😂
March 25, 2025 at 5:59 PM
Failures in AI translation:
My wife Becky just used Google Translate to ask our landscaper in Spanish to dump a bucket of weeds she had pulled, and he showed up at our front door wondering why she’s texting him about marijuana. 😂😂😂
My wife Becky just used Google Translate to ask our landscaper in Spanish to dump a bucket of weeds she had pulled, and he showed up at our front door wondering why she’s texting him about marijuana. 😂😂😂
Yes, I used the Atlantic author look-up app, too, and yes, I can see a number of my own books in LibGen. But mostly I just want to be this version of Ben Jones.
March 20, 2025 at 9:12 PM
Yes, I used the Atlantic author look-up app, too, and yes, I can see a number of my own books in LibGen. But mostly I just want to be this version of Ben Jones.
The ripple effects of the tariffs will hit everyone, and many are already feeling it. Small businesses with a high percentage of their revenue coming from cross-border clients will be the first to fall.
One of my companies informed me they cancelled a $2m conference in Florida. Why ?
They didn’t feel they could pass on the incremental cost of tariffs. So they are cutting expenses.
That’s a city that lost a ton of tourism revenue.
The cost of tariffs isn’t just the cost of the tariff
They didn’t feel they could pass on the incremental cost of tariffs. So they are cutting expenses.
That’s a city that lost a ton of tourism revenue.
The cost of tariffs isn’t just the cost of the tariff
March 11, 2025 at 12:28 AM
The ripple effects of the tariffs will hit everyone, and many are already feeling it. Small businesses with a high percentage of their revenue coming from cross-border clients will be the first to fall.
So far 2025 has been a good reminder to me how much I loathe recklessness and arrogance, two vices that seem to go hand-in-hand. I'm all for decisiveness, and some decisions can be tough. But I believe strongly in the importance of listening, weighing options, and seeking the compassionate path.
March 7, 2025 at 6:26 PM
So far 2025 has been a good reminder to me how much I loathe recklessness and arrogance, two vices that seem to go hand-in-hand. I'm all for decisiveness, and some decisions can be tough. But I believe strongly in the importance of listening, weighing options, and seeking the compassionate path.
Maybe, just maybe, the past two decades of unbridled obsession with the anti-hero here in the U.S. haven’t served us very well.
March 7, 2025 at 4:49 PM
Maybe, just maybe, the past two decades of unbridled obsession with the anti-hero here in the U.S. haven’t served us very well.
Reposted by Ben Jones
NEW: The actions of Trump and Vance in recent weeks highlight something under-appreciated.
The American right is now ideologically closer to countries like Russia, Turkey and in some senses China, than to the rest of the west (even the conservative west).
My column: www.ft.com/content/3046...
The American right is now ideologically closer to countries like Russia, Turkey and in some senses China, than to the rest of the west (even the conservative west).
My column: www.ft.com/content/3046...
March 7, 2025 at 9:58 AM
NEW: The actions of Trump and Vance in recent weeks highlight something under-appreciated.
The American right is now ideologically closer to countries like Russia, Turkey and in some senses China, than to the rest of the west (even the conservative west).
My column: www.ft.com/content/3046...
The American right is now ideologically closer to countries like Russia, Turkey and in some senses China, than to the rest of the west (even the conservative west).
My column: www.ft.com/content/3046...
For the record I’m against tariffs with Canada and Mexico, I’m in favor of supporting Ukraine, I’m behind federal programs to support science and foreign aid, and I’m vehemently pro-democracy and anti-authoritarian. So there ya go.
March 5, 2025 at 6:25 AM
For the record I’m against tariffs with Canada and Mexico, I’m in favor of supporting Ukraine, I’m behind federal programs to support science and foreign aid, and I’m vehemently pro-democracy and anti-authoritarian. So there ya go.
“You could say I’d lost my belief in our politicians. They all seemed like game show hosts to me.”
Sting, 1993
Sting, 1993
March 4, 2025 at 1:36 AM
“You could say I’d lost my belief in our politicians. They all seemed like game show hosts to me.”
Sting, 1993
Sting, 1993
This model of the development of one aspect of masculinity (“the warrior”) from boy (bottom pyramid) to man (top) is interesting in light of current events. The pinnacle represents balanced, healthy masculinity; bottom left is over-indexing in an unhealthy way / bottom right is under-indexing.
March 2, 2025 at 1:54 PM
This model of the development of one aspect of masculinity (“the warrior”) from boy (bottom pyramid) to man (top) is interesting in light of current events. The pinnacle represents balanced, healthy masculinity; bottom left is over-indexing in an unhealthy way / bottom right is under-indexing.
Word of the day: extortion.
February 28, 2025 at 7:37 PM
Word of the day: extortion.
Reposted by Ben Jones
My best client work develops singular powerful images that attract and inform minds. To do good work we need to engage and collaborate in a way that has creative energy, iteration, and momentum. I need to learn lots from you to get you where you need to go.
Learn more at infoWeTrust.com
Learn more at infoWeTrust.com
February 27, 2025 at 5:29 PM
My best client work develops singular powerful images that attract and inform minds. To do good work we need to engage and collaborate in a way that has creative energy, iteration, and momentum. I need to learn lots from you to get you where you need to go.
Learn more at infoWeTrust.com
Learn more at infoWeTrust.com
That's a bit of a head-trip: I had found the Christoper Reeve documentary to be quite moving, so I just re-watched Superman II last night. This morning, I woke up to the news of Gene Hackman's death. Life is full of strange coincidences like that.
February 27, 2025 at 3:59 PM
That's a bit of a head-trip: I had found the Christoper Reeve documentary to be quite moving, so I just re-watched Superman II last night. This morning, I woke up to the news of Gene Hackman's death. Life is full of strange coincidences like that.